This story is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a penetrating look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who hated anything to do with domesticity. The Walls children learned to...

"This book compiles the best and most relevant information from Brian Santos' three previous titles, Painting Secrets, Faux Finish Secrets, and Wallcovering Secrets. To bring the content up-to-date, Brian has added explanations of the latest developmentsin tools, paint, clean-up materials, and techniques; discusses environmentally safe alternatives to toxic, hazardous, and environmentally harmful materials; and addresses current tastes, style preferences,...

"A masterful thief plots an impossible crime in Book 2 of the Riley Wolfe series"-- Pulling off an impossible crime is the only way he can stay alive. Stealing a Faberge egg. Surviving a double cross. And pulling off the most incredible robbery ever, for the world's most demanding--and dangerous collector. This will be the challenge of thief extraordinaire Riley Wolfe's life. -- adapted from dust jacket In St. Petersburg, Riley steals a Fabergé...

Early on a May morning in the depth of South Africa's winter, a woman's naked body, washed in bleach, is discovered on a stone wall beside the N2 highway at the top of Sir Lowry's Pass, some thirty-five miles from Cape Town. The local investigation stalls, so the case is referred to Captain Benny Griessel and his colorful partner Vaughn Cupido of the Hawks--the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations. The woman proves to be Alicia Lewis, an...

"From the bestselling master espionage writer, hailed by Vince Flynn as "the best in the business," comes a riveting novel about the French Resistance in Nazi-occupied Paris. Paris, 1941. The City of Light, occupied by the Nazis, is dark and silent at night. Streetlamps are painted blue and apartment windows draped or shuttered in the blackout ordered by the Germans. But when the clouds part, the silvery moonlight defies authority, and so does a leader...

Faulques, a war photographer, witnessed most of the wars of the end of the 20th Century, but he was never able to capture the photo that would explain the chaos of the universe. Now, as continues to try to understand it, he starts painting a grand circular fresco on the inside wall of a tower on the Mediterranean, disturbed by the memories of a woman he can never forget, and an unexpected visit: a man who wants to kill him.

A young boy passes a painting of a hand on a wall in his neighborhood and watches others placing their own hands against it. The act means something different for each of them: Ms. Iris tells him it is a link to her home country; for Devin, it connects him to his older sister, who just left for college; for Savannah, it reminds her of her grandmother who passed away. The boy thinks of those who are on the other side of the mural, of loved ones lost...

The endearingly bitter writer, Amy Gallup has happily isolated herself from the world spending the last two decades teaching and reviewing. She has done a lot of thinking, but very little writing. On an unassuming morning, in her slippers, Amy trips in her backyard, goes head-over-heels, and into the side of a birdbath. The hospital clears her of head injury, so Amy returns home. When a local reporter shows up for a scheduled interview, Amy is not...

The greatest unsolved mystery of the American Southwest is the fate of the Anasazi, the native peoples who in the eleventh century converged on Chaco Canyon (in today's northwestern New Mexico) and built a flourishing cultural center that attracted pilgrims from far and wide, a vital crossroads of the prehistoric world. The Anasazis' accomplishments--in agriculture, art, commerce, architecture, and engineering--were astounding, as remarkable in their...

"Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky presents an insider's view of Havana: the elegant, tattered city he has come to know over more than thirty years. Part cultural history, part travelogue, with recipes, historic engravings, photographs, and Kurlansky's own pen-and-ink drawings throughout, Havana celebrates the city's singular music, literature, baseball, and food; its five centuries of outstanding, neglected architecture; and its extraordinary blend...